§ Mr. ThurnhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science which higher education establishments have expressed an interest in receiving polytechnic designation; which are likely to meet the new criteria which he has issued; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. JacksonMy right hon. Friend has accepted the criteria proposed by the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council for the designation of new polytechnics and has invited the council to advise him before the end of May whether any colleges currently meet, or whether there is a clear prospect that they will meet within the next two years, its criteria for polytechnic designation. It is now for the council to consider evidence from individual institutions and advise my right hon. Friend.
The higher education establishments which, I understand, have expressed an interest in receiving polytechnic designation are as follows:
- Anglia Higher Education College
- Bolton Institute of Higher Education
- Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education1
- Derbyshire College of Higher Education
- Dorset Institute of Higher Education
- Ealing College of Higher Education
- Humberside College of Higher Education
- Luton College of Higher Education
- Southampton Institute of Higher Education
- Thames Valley College of Higher Education
1 To he formed by the merger of Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology (HE) and the College of St. Paul and St. Mary, Cheltenham on 1 April 1990.
The London Institute has expressed an interest in receiving the status of a polytechnic, but not the name.